Redwood Records emerges as a new touchstone of downtown Santa Cruz arts culture
Quick Take
A little more than a year after Metavinyl closed in downtown Santa Cruz, Redwood Records has taken its place as the pillar of the downtown records scene, thanks in large part to its participation in the growing First Friday arts event. This Friday, Redwood Records will bring in one of its most ambitious acts yet — San Francisco singer-songwriter Gilberto Rodriguez — to perform live in the store at Cedar and Maple.
When news broke last year that the Metavinyl boutique record shop was closing, it seemed like yet another post-COVID blow to downtown Santa Cruz’s hometown street culture. But this story, unlike some others downtown, turned out to have a happy ending.
As it happened, Metavinyl’s tiny space at the corner of Cedar and Maple streets didn’t stay unoccupied for long. Two friends who had loved Metavinyl bought the business, including its music inventory of mostly vinyl records. And Redwood Records was born.
A little more than a year later, Redwood Records is now a pillar of the downtown scene, thanks in large part to its participation in the growing First Friday arts event. This Friday, Redwood Records will bring in one of its most ambitious acts yet — San Francisco singer-songwriter Gilberto Rodriguez — to perform live in the store.
Wait, you’re thinking, live music in the former Metavinyl? But where?
On a visit this week to Redwood Records, the shop’s co-owner, Tyler Davin-Moore, gestured to the back wall of the store. The store’s layout is nearly identical to that from the days of Megavinyl. Davin-Moore gestured to the end of the twin rows of vinyl albums, maybe 20 feet from the front door.
“We have the smallest stage in the world,” he said. That claim might not stand up to rigorous peer review, but the stage is small. In fact, it’s propped up against the back wall and folds down like a Murphy bed when it’s time for a live performance. The back-wall performance area is bigger than your standard bathtub, maybe, but not by much. Still, since almost the beginning of the year, Redwood has hosted a wide variety of acts in the space, including, incredibly, a five-piece band.
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Gilberto Rodriguez comes to Santa Cruz hot on the release of his new single, “Alé Alé,” typical of his Latin-tinged rock/soul sound, much like another San Francisco favorite son, Carlos Santana. Redwood Records has been focusing mostly on promising regional acts, with many local bands from Santa Cruz, but some from outlying areas, especially from the Bay Area. Next month, the store will welcome Ladders, a post-punk act popular in Santa Cruz.
“Yeah, they are six people,” said Davin-Moore of Ladders. “I don’t know how we’re going to do it, but we’re going to do it.”
Davin-Moore and his friend and business partner Rudy Kuhn reopened Metavinyl in the summer of 2022. At the beginning of the new year, they remodeled the interior a bit, added a new color scheme — Metavinyl’s shocking blue morphed into green and orange — and changed the name. Kuhn lived up in Boulder Creek and, though Davin-Moore lives in Santa Cruz, he was a longtime employee of Cal Fire and had a deep affinity for the redwoods.
“Rudy said — and I think it’s really true — that so much of Santa Cruz is about beach stuff and surfing,” Davin-Moore said, "[yet] we have these beautiful forests just a couple of miles away.”
First Friday, of course, is about the visual arts and Redwood Records is also hanging art in the store, curated by the owners much like the musicians appearing on stage. In September, the record store will feature the art of Angel Gonzales.
The vinyl record business has boomed in the past decade after flatlining back in the 2000s. A maddening manufacturing bottleneck during the pandemic has eased somewhat and product is again flowing to a new generation of audiophiles, augmenting their Spotify and Apple Music accounts with turntables and tape decks.
Redwood is a used-records store, and almost all of its older titles come from Santa Cruzans selling their own collections. What locals are willing to give up largely defines the store’s inventory, at least when it comes to old records. “There’s a lot of prog-rock coming in these days,” said Davin-Moore, in reference to the complex art rock of the early 1970s. “So we’re seeing a lot of Camel and Can records right now.” Mainstream classic rock, however, remains the store’s bread and butter.
The newer albums, however, come from the owners’ own connections with distributors, and a significant portion of the store’s inventory is new recordings of younger bands from a wide variety of genres.
“Every store is different,” said Davin-Moore. “What comes in the door here in Santa Cruz is going to be way different from what stores in San Francisco or L.A. or other places may have. Every town has its own vibe. That’s why, when you travel, it’s great to go to record stores to see what’s going on.”
Gilberto Rodriguez plays live Friday at Redwood Records, 320 Cedar St. in Santa Cruz, from 6 to 9 p.m. The event is free.
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